Orissa High Court on Monday further extended the interim protection from “coercive action” against senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi till May 5 in a bribery case involving the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd, a PSU.
According to Bishnupada Sethi's Advocate Debashish Kumar Panda, the High Court also extended the interim protection of the IAS officer's wife and daughter.
While conducting a hearing of the writ petition filed by them today, the bench of Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi extended their interim protection and scheduled the case on May 5.
In the writ petition, they had mentioned that the CBI team had not got any offensive or vital documents while conducting raid on Sethi's house. However, the agency froze his wife's bank account and seized his daughter's laptop she used for her studies. Sethi has sought protection from such torture and safeguarding of fundamental rights for him and his family.
It is to be noted here that Bishnupada Sethi came under the CBI scanner after Bridge and Roof Company (India) Ltd group general manager Chanchal Mukherjee, who was arrested while taking Rs 10 lakh bribe on December 8 in Bhubaneswar from a real estate company promising them work orders, took his name while being interrogated by the central agency.
Based on the inputs from Mukherjee, the CBI summoned Sethi for questioning over the matter and later an 8-member CBI team from Delhi raided his government quarter on February 18. However, an altercation between the 1995-batch officer and CBI officials took place when then later reached the former's residence to raid the house.
Sethi claimed his innocence saying that neither he has any connection with Chanchal Mukherjee nor ever received any favour from the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited. He further said that no FIR has been filed against him and filed a petition on February 24 seeking the High Court's intervention alleging that the CBI team is harassing him and his family members.
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